I've never seen gameplay quite like this. It's really kind of cool. What would you call it? Just turn-based? There has to be another name for it! What kind of programming goes into it? Would something like this be fairly easy to make compared to a real-time game?

I've never seen gameplay quite like this. It's really kind of cool. What would you call it? Just turn-based? There has to be another name for it! What kind of programming goes into it? Would something like this be fairly easy to make compared to a real-time game?

I've written both and so far I'd say it's technically easier to write a turn based game like this but harder to design the game to fun. Real time games difficulty is with constant performance tweaks but you do get a sorta natural fun simply from trying to control the character.

I call it a side scrolling roguelike but I don't spose it really matters

You did really well with those graphics (way better than I could ever hope to do). It gives it a nice style - and it makes it yours. Don't muddle with that. If you want to do a little better, than I say work on the graphics yourself a bit more - because you did a great job to begin with. No reason to ruin that.